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The reason I asked about whether people disliked the bands before or after hype was that quite often it's hard, when you've not been at those first gigs/on that original list of myspace friends, and been there all the way, as it were, to see what a given artist or band is all about.
I take your point, but I'm not sure I'd agree. Granted, it's not explicitly stated in the summary, so, you know, my mistake, but the kind of bands being discussed here (broadly speaking, new groups with the kind of media profile that makes it possible to develop fairly strong negative feelings towards them on the basis of one album, a couple of singles or possibly even less, so basically NME bands and pop acts,) surely don't require that level of engagement before it's legitimate to form an opinion? Actually, I'm not sure if any band does. But to take the example of (and I know it's easy to pick on them but there they are on the television most evenings anyway, peddling their wares,) The Frattellis, I feel, perhaps wrongly, that I've got a perfect understanding of the men and their music based on the sixty second advert that's currently doing the rounds - I don't honestly think that the experience of having gone to all their early gigs would have altered my opinion much.
The point about hype's an interesting one though. Over in the Bloc Party thread (it's here or hereabouts,) various people have talked about getting into the band's music at parties and so on, without being all that aware of what they apparently stand for in a broader media context. Perhaps it's because I never get invited to parties, or because I still read the NME now and again when I really shouldn't, but I honestly can't remember the last time that happened to me. Horrendously, it was probably with 'Grace' by Jeff Buckley, which I think I finally heard in about 2003, having nursed a mild, but I like to think principled dislike of the cult of Jeff for some time before then. To which, all right, one could point out that it's best to listen to whoever it is properly before forming an opinion based on their press pack, but on the other hand, you can't listen to everything, at least unless you're being paid for it, and even then you'd struggle a bit these days, I think. And it seems counter-intuitive to go to the trouble of buying something if you're reasonably sure, however unfairly, that you're not going to enjoy it. Similarly, down-loading's free, but I don't really find that an especially pleasing process, it seems time-consuming and irritating, and on my computer anyway, the results always sound a bit tinny, like listening to medium wave radio.
All of which, I suppose, is by way of saying that I wish it was still the Nineties, but seeing as it isn't, a light-hearted thread devoted to having a go at new bands seems more entertaining, to me personally, than another short discussion about music that people actually like, as these tend to fizzle out around post #15, at least unless somebody starts being contrary. |
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